Improvement in paper-braids



aw. PARTRIDGE'.

PAPER-BRAID.

No.171,312.- Patented Dec. 21,1876.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IMPROVEMENT IN PAPER-BRAIDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 1 71,312,

dated December 21, 1875; application filed November 9, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J OHN W. PARTRIDGE, l

of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Braid or Plait of Paper, or Paper and Thread ('Jombined,for making hats, bonnets, and other useful articles and I do hereby dcclare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings making part of this specification, in which Figure 1 represents a simple strip of paper Fig. 2 represents a strip of the same width, with the edges folded in. Fig. 3 represents a strip folded into a flat strand, with a thread running through its center. Fig. 4: represents a braid made from the folded strips shown in Fig. 3.

The making braids of paper for the uses named is no new thing, but the peculiar mode I employ is new. Simple unfolded strands have been used, but proved frail and Worthless. Attempts to utilize such braids by applyinga coat of shellac-varnish, or other substance, have not proved successful. Braids have also been madeof twisted paper thread, which are very strong and durable, but make a hat so heavy as to be undesirable, not to say Worthless. In this form, the strands being wound, the braid resembles cotton-braid, entirely unlike straw or chip, which it is designed to imitate; it also proves too thick, and the hard brittle threads of difficult to sew.

My improvement consists in makinga braid or plait from any required number of strips of paper of any required width,

which it is made render it and inclosing a sized thread; or other fibrous substance, running through the length of the strands. Paper braids made in this manner combine the desirable qualities of strength, elasticity, thinness, lightness, and durability, and closely resemble chip in general appearance, having the same qualities of lightness and delicacy of coloring, but unlike it, is not brittle and liable to sunburn, or injury byexposure to damp weather. The sized thread adds strength to the strand, and cements the folds.

' Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is As a new article of manufacture, the hereindescribed paper braid, consisting of a series of folded flat strands, each of which being provided within its folds with one or more strenthening threads or strips, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

Boston, October 27, 1875.

JOHN W. PARTRIDGE.

Witnesses:

GEO. H. KINGSBURY, SoLoMoN H. DODGE.

folded as many times as desired into flat strands, or so folded 

